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Dedication: to the Red Dragon's Order (at the top of her lungs Long Live the Queen of Fanfiction! people stare Sorry...)
Chapter 33: What He Planned and What Came Out
Sunday morning, a week after the ball, Harry stared as an unknown black owl delivered him a letter. He picked it up and opened it just as the owl left.
And as he opened it, his heart stopped beating for a second: he knew that handwriting. Yes, it had been four years ago that he had seen it first and last, yes, he had only seen a few lines written in that handwriting, but he knew it better than nearly any handwriting: it belonged to Tom Marvolo Riddle, alias 'I am Lord Voldemort' as he had so nicely put it, alias 'You- Know-Who', as the others has said. Now, why would Voldemort send him a letter. Had he hit himself on the head or something?
He started reading it, his heart in his throat:
"Potter,
I am hereby announcing you that your precious godfather, Sirius Black as well as Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shakelbolt, Remus Lupin, Richard Drum and Rasputin Adrianov are now my prisoners. As precious as their lives might be to me, I agree to make a trade and offer you both their lives and their freedom. In return I want the Green Flame Torch.
If you wish to make the trade, come with it in the Forbidden Forest at 1 a.m. on the 3rd of June, fifty meters from the sign you will see at the edge of the Forest. If you do not wish to trade, you will find their bodies the next morning on the edge of the Forest.
Signed:
Lord Voldemort. "
Harry gaped at the letter. Sirius was trapped! And he'd be killed if Harry didn't go there on the 3rd of June. That meant a weak after!
"Harry, mate, what's wrong?" Ron asked and Harry showed him the letter.
Ron read the name at the end and gaped.
"For the love of God..." he said slowly. "You-Know-Who sent you a letter!"
"Read it" Harry muttered darkly.
Ron read it and his eyes widened.
"What the-? He's got all these people! Who're Drum and Adrianov?" he asked, frowning.
"They're Aurors" Hermione replied. Apparently, she had been reading over his shoulder.
"How do you know?" Ron asked, intrigued.
"Their names sometimes appear in the newspaper" she replied. "What do we do?"
"We give him the Torch" Harry said reluctantly.
"Give him the Torch? No way!" Hermione said and stared at Harry. "You're out of your mind!"
"But then..."
"Sorry to interrupt you, but you look like you've got a message from the Dark Lord" said a silky voice behind Ron and he turned to look at Draco Malfoy.
"We... I mean, Harry did" Ron replied and Draco's eyes widened and he gaped.
"For God's sake" he muttered and shook his head. "I was joking"
Draco snatched the letter from Ron's hand and started reading it aloud.
"Potter. Wow, that's warm. I am hereby announcing you that your precious godfather, Sirius Black, you know who your godfather is, don't you Potter? Thought so. as well as Nymph-Nymphadora Tonks, poor woman, she has a horrible name Kingsley Shakelbolt, Remus Lupin, what's the werewolf doing in this? Richard Drum and Rasputin Adrianov, great, Aurors! are now my prisoners. Shit, pardon me, but shit. As precious as their lives might be to me and I bet they are, Dark Lord, I bet they are, I agree to make a trade and offer you both their lives and their freedom Mhm. That sounds fun. In return I want the Green Flame Torch. Oh, triple shit. If you wish to make the trade, come with it in the Forbidden Forest at 1 a.m. on the 3rd of June great, you have to break the curfew, too, fifty meters from the sign you will see at the edge of the Forest. Wow, you'll see the sign, but no-one else will, huh? If you do not wish to trade, you will find their bodies the next morning on the edge of the Forest. Well, at least we can have a nice funeral if we don't make it, huh? Signed: Lord Voldemort Ugh, how can he sign with his name?!"
The ones around Draco were gaping at him as he was reading and commenting Voldemort's letter.
"So, Potter, what will you do?" the Slytherin asked.
"Go talk to Dumbledore" Harry replied and took his letter back.
"And if he says: let Black die, we need the Torch, you'll go ahead and get the mutt and the rest of the gang by yourself, huh?" Draco said. "That would make sure you wouldn't lose your reputation of the least obedient student around."
Harry realized that of course he wouldn't listen to Dumbledore if he said that he should let Sirius and the others die. But he was sure the old mage wouldn't let them die. So, he went to the Head table and straight to Dumbledore, waving the letter in front of the Headmaster.
"Sir, I received this letter five minutes ago" he said slowly and Dumbledore took it. The moment he saw the name at the bottom of the page, he let out an 'oh, my' and Severus Snape leaned over from his left to see what was written. He gaped slowly and then stared at Harry.
"Mr. Potter, you are in trouble" he whispered to Harry who had a very bad feeling about this.
After reading the letter several times, Dumbledore put it down in front of them and put his face in his hands.
"What do we do, Severus?" he asked slowly.
"I really doubt that giving the Torch to the Dark Lord would be a good idea" he replied. "But... letting them die would be a very bad tactical movement."
Harry was just about to complain to himself that Snape was insensitive and rock-hearted, but he realized that the man had said that it was 'a very bad tactical movement' meaning that it would be even worse. However, Harry was there and he was not allowed to see that the Potion Master had a heart.
"I shall think about this, Harry" Dumbledore said and Harry went back to his table where many people had gathered.
"Come with me, Harry" Luna said, taking his hand and the others followed them as they walked out of the Great Hall. Everywhere, people had gathered, knowing that the great 'Boy-Who-Lived' had received a letter from the great 'Man-Who-Tried-To-Kill-Him'. From most tables, there were silent prayers that the former would soon be 'Teen-Who-Lived' and the latter 'Man-Who- Didn't'.
Harry was led by Luna to the secret room in Hogwarts where he had put the Green Flame Torch in and he saw that there were nine other people there besides him: Jane, Mark, Hermione, Ron, Amala, Neville, Luna, Draco and Ginny. In other words, the exact formation that went to get Stoney the First. Or was it the Second? Anyway, it was really weird for all of them to be staying there again.
Draco threw himself in an armchair and noticed:
"There aren't enough seats here, we should have a couch or two"
As if on command, the four armchairs turned into couches –making Draco lose his balance since he was sitting in one- and the table jumped aside.
"Whoa!" he said, slightly gaping. "Is this normal?"
"I don't think so" Hermione said, shaking her head. "The one who made this room must have been very powerful, everything is alive... Even that book!"
"Yes" Draco muttered to himself and spread himself on half the couch. "Well, sit down, I have a plan! We can ponder about the weirdness of this situation later."
"You already thought of something?" Ron asked disbelieving, but sat down, just like everybody else.
"Yes, already, I'm a Malfoy, remember?" Draco said then snorted to himself. "Although I'm not sure if I should be this proud of my name anymore"
He looked at the others, his blonde hair spiky and his grey eyes twinkling dangerously. He gave a small smile before he said deviously:
"Well, it's a Slytherin plan... bet the Dark Lord has one of the type, too" A smile spread across his face. "But he won't expect you to have a Slytherin plan! Oh, no, he'll expect you to have a typically Hufflepuff-Gryffindor plan and to expect him to play fairly."
Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Draco quieted him by raising his hand.
"So, on to my plan!" he said and smiled deviously. "We want the prisoners and the Torch, right?"
"Right" the others said slowly. Where was he going?
"How about we keep them both?" Draco suggested. "The Dark Lord is quite uncomfortable with the Green Flame Torch since Harry can defeat him using it. If Harry carries the Torch, he won't dare attack him. However, the moment he lets go of it, he's lost, am I right? Because the Dark Lord won't agree on just letting Potter go"
"But he has to, it's in the agreement" Neville said and Draco shook his head.
"Definitely not! He said he'd let the prisoners go. Not Harry. He'll skin him alive" Draco replied with a frown and a look that said 'come on, how believing can you be?'
Harry cringed, but Draco didn't notice it as he calmly spoke forward.
"And it's not sure he'd let even the prisoners go. He might take the Torch, destroy it and kill everybody around with a bit of help from some trusty Death Eaters, maybe my father included. So, what's the solution?" he asked and smiled as if expecting them to jump up, giving the answer. However, nobody did so.
"I have no clue" Neville muttered shaking his head slightly. Draco rolled his eyes and started speaking again.
"I'm quite sure Dumbledore will send Harry backup so that he wouldn't be killed by the Dark Lord" he said with a false sigh and then started to grin as he said in a more and more excited tone: "But alas, the Dark Lord and Dumbledore will have no clue that there will be two back-up parties. One will make sure that Harry and the prisoners are safe and the second one will make sure the Torch will be back in our hands!"
Draco punched the air, making the others stare.
"Excuse me?" Ron said, gaping.
"Weasel, don't you get it?!" Draco said, excited. "Dumbledore will concentrate on getting everybody safe out of the Forest. We will concentrate on getting the Torch back! Harry's the bloody bearer, he can summon it, for God's sake! The ten of us will take care of the Torch! And Harry will be able to use it against the Dark Lord enough for everybody to flee. Including himself! He'll retreat towards Hogwarts and the wards will keep the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters away. Besides, Dumbledore will be there to help. It can't be another battle, there's no way the Dark Lord will be there with a huge army! So basically, we'll be safe and so will the Torch. All we have to do is get You-Know-Who to let go of the prisoners and everything will be fine!"
The others stared at him and Ron muttered:
"Good plan, mate". Then, he frowned. "But how do we get there without Dumbledore and his party and You-Know-Who and his party seeing us?"
"Ah, that's your problem" Draco said. "You're the tactical genius, I've heard of the great chess that you play. Think of anything, Granger will help us put it in practice. Potter will have to hold his head on his shoulders and duel the Dark Lord, that's enough on his shoulders. Ginny will be the second in command, she's a great leader. Wright will have to talk to the Professors to get them to retreat to Hogwarts. Longbottom, do you know any small plants that might attack the Dark Lord?"
"Yes, but how will we get them there?" he asked.
"Well, it's up to Mark Evans with transportations, I heard he's particularly good with levitation charms, he can even transport many objects in the same time. Lovegood, you and Chase can easily create images of not-proved-to-exist creatures, right?"
"Right" the two replied. "I could show her how they look like" Luna added, dreamily.
"And I could transfigure some things to look like those creatures..." Jane said thoughtfully. "It'll take time, though, I'm good at Transfigurations, but I'm not McGonagall"
"And then we could levitate them to the place where Harry will meet You- Know-Who!" Luna said with a grin.
"No, no!" Ron said. "I've a better idea!"
The others stared at him as he said, turning red:
"How quick can you transfigure them?"
"I don't know... It might take a whole hour to do one creature" Jane replied, frowning.
"How about if we put them in the Forest and covered them with leaves and maybe earth and then, when You-Know-Who comes, we could uncover them!" Ron suggested. "And we could take some plants all over the Forest, too"
"I know a flew plants that can move on small distances" Neville said with a frown. "If I carry a bit of meat behind me, I'll end up with some killers behind me.
"That's the spirit!" Draco said and got up. "Move it, people, we only have a week! Me and Ginny will help with whatever we can, I'll brew potions to defeat these idiots and she'll help transfigure and all that. Potter, maybe you should help with those things, too. Granger, make Weasley's plans work!"
They all nodded and split up, Ginny, Jane and Luna going to gather whatever useless objects they could find to transfigure into things that looked like creatures, Ron was starting to shoot ideas at Hermione who was writing them down on paper, Neville had ran off to the greenhouses –where he had permanent access granted by Sprout- to take some plants and to convince them to breed. Draco and Amala had run off to brew potions and Harry was helping Luna and co. to get useless objects. Hey went outside to pick up flowers and tree branches and twigs, making others stare at them, but they didn't care.
All in all, it would be a hard week.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"So, Albus, what do we do?" Minerva asked. All the teachers were in the staff room and were awaiting for the Headmaster to tell them what they should do.
"Well, there is a problem" Albus said and shook his head.
"Really?!" Severus sarcastically said. "And I who thought everything was sunny and happy!"
Albus speared him a glance before he looked back to the other teachers, continuing as if there had been no interruption whatsoever.
"Well, unfortunately, Voldemort" a few of the teachers moaned in complain at his continuous use of that name "-is not going to play fair"
Severus rolled his eyes at that. Really?! How did he figure that out?
"He will probably try to get hold both of the Torch and Harry" Dumbledore continued. "But he is afraid of the Torch whenever somebody is carrying it. So, as long as Harry holds it, there will be no problem. The problem will come when he will have left the Torch out of his hand. Then, all hell will break loose."
'Really subtle, Albus, that will make them feel calm and ready to think straight' Severus thought to himself hoping that for once the Headmaster would use Legilimency to read his thoughts that cried of 'stop babbling!'
As suspected, all teachers cringed and shifted uncomfortably in their seats. All except Minerva, Flitwick, Severus and Iris. And of course, Albus, but that didn't count.
"Therefore, we must have a plan and I daresay we should include the Order of the Phoenix in this, shall we? My plan is that we make a hidden escort for Harry when he goes into the Forest. I will make sure that Voldemort" some cringed and the others sighed helplessly "is occupied and will not have time to kill the prisoners. However, I am afraid I cannot interfere so that he won't destroy the Torch quickly. I need to stay away from him so that he cannot notice me and I will never make it in time. But you will be there, make sure the prisoners are safe... and Harry."
Severus sighed.
"We'll make sure we'll do that, Albus" he said slowly. "But if he gets in the battle, there will be many deaths"
"He will be preoccupied by destroying the Torch" Albus said. "He won't get into battle, but he will make sure there will be quite a few Death Eaters around him, fighting against the ones protecting the prisoners. We'll have to get them out of there quickly"
"Very well, Albus" Severus said.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Back in the hidden room, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Ron were thinking of strategies for getting in the Forest. Harry was pacing, Hermione was sitting thoughtful on an armchair, Ron was lying on a couch, thinking and Draco had a huge book in his arms.
"Will the sign be there at 1 a.m. or will you have to get there at 1 a.m.?" Hermione asked.
"I have to be there at 1 a.m." Harry replied.
"Hmm" she said slowly to herself. "But it will probably be there for at least half an hour, right? To make things safe for the guy who gets there, right?"
"I guess so" Harry replied and Ron beamed and jumped up and down.
"I know! I've got it!" he said. "There will be nine of us, right?"
"Right!" Harry replied.
"Wonderful! We can sit at the top of the West Tower, nobody really goes there!" Ron said. "With broomsticks, I mean. We'll of course have to teach Mark and Neville to ride, but it won't be a problem"
"It will, actually" Draco said with a laugh. "Ok, who's training them in basic flying skills?"
"I will" Harry answered. "Hermione? Do you need help with flying?"
"Maybe" she thoughtfully said. "But how will we get in the Forest unnoticed?"
"How about turning ourselves invisible?" Ron proposed. "I mean, it would help? And silencing charms! Yeah! 'Mione?"
"Um... I don't know and invisibility charms that would work fine... They're not easy to do, you know?" Hermione said. "But maybe I could find something..."
"I know something...the Disillusionment charm!" Harry said. "Moody used it on me last year when they rescued me from the Dursleys"
"Right... I'll go check on that one" Hermione replied and started looking through the books in the library. "If I can't find anything here, do you think I'll find something in the Room of Requirement?"
"Maybe" Draco replied, sticking his nose back in the book.
"What are you reading there, anyway?" Harry asked, frowning.
"I'm not quite sure, the thing doesn't have a title" Draco replied. "But it's quite fun to read, actually. Something about hexes and charms, you should see! tones of them. I'm currently trying to find some efficient and simple ones."
Harry walked over to Draco and stared at the pages that had moving pictures on them.
"This one is nice" the blond said. "How about we use it? I mean, our enemies will be quite pissed at being trapped in balls..."
But Harry had another thing in mind. He stared at the spell right below that one.
"Remember our second year? The dueling class?" Harry asked.
"Yes, quite well actually" Draco replied and stared at Harry. "But you should know, the Dark Lord is also a Parselmouth, so that won't work"
"What if it does?" Harry asked. "Use the spell, will you?"
Draco stood up, took out his wand and, under the surprised eyes of Ron and Hermione, cried:
"Serpensortia!"
A snake shot out of his wand, making Hermione cry out in surprise and Harry stared at it and hissed.
-You!-
-Yessssss?- the cobra asked.
-I need your help- Harry hissed. -Would you like to help me, hmsssssss?-
-Yesss- it replied, staring at him confusedly.
-But you mussssssst promissssse not to help another- Harry hissed. -Do you promisssssse?-
-Yessss!- it said and stared at him confused.
-I need you to help me fight againsssssst a ssssssnake sssspeaker and hissssss ssssservantsss, human ssservantsssss. Willing?-
-Yessss- the cobra replied and looked at him, measuring him up and down.
-I'll give you command of an army then, rightsssssssssss?- Harry said, smiling at the snake and thinking about his idea.
-Yessssss- the cobra said, seeming to smile and to finally understand something.
-And I will offer you micsse to eat, say twenty to you, ten to the otherssssss, alright?- Harry said, suddenly struck by inspiration.
-You have yourssself a deal- it replied, for the first time not saying 'yes'.
-Great! I'll give you half sssssoon, before we fight and the other half after, rightssssss?-
-Yessss, ssire, you have a deal!- the cobra replied and nodded happily.
-But until then, pleasssse don't hurt anyone, rigthss?- Harry asked.
-Of courssse!- it said with a true snake smile.
Harry beamed at the others.
"Well, we might need some mice to feed our new snake army, under the command of this cobra" he said and the others smiled happily. "We'll feed them ten mice per snake and this wonderful commander twenty. Half now, half after and they won't betray us"
"Well, Potter, seems like we'll be summoning mice" Draco said with a sigh. "No problem"
Hermione looked thoughtful at them before she waved her wand and muttered something, a huge glass empty aquarium appearing.
"You can gather them in this" she said with a sigh. "I don't like the idea of killing so many mice, but I don't think it would be killing them if we summon them"
Harry and Draco smiled at each other and Harry started summoning mice while Draco was summoning snakes.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Amala was going down the corridors of Hogwarts to meet Severus. She had to find out what Dumbledore's plans were. And she was quite sure he would have a few suggestions.
She knocked on the door and heard a quiet 'enter' from inside. She opened the door, entered as quietly as a mouse and closed the door behind her.
"Hello, Severus" she said slowly.
"Amala!" he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry to say I'm quite busy at the moment, but..."
"I'm quite busy at the moment, too" she said quickly. "But this isn't a pleasure visit"
She decided to go straight with the whole thing... well, as straight as she could.
"No?" he said, then mentally scolded himself. Of course she would be worrying for Potter!
"No, Sev. Actually, I was wondering what Albus had in mind for these events" she said slowly. "It's quite a difficult problem..."
Her voice got quieter and quieter, but Severus could hear her and he let out a concerned sigh.
"He will be there, but I don't think –and neither does he, as a matter of fact- that the Torch will make it. It is one of the greatest problems we have, it is an ancient magical object, we cannot allow it to be destroyed, but we cannot allow the captives to die. I do believe the Torch will be destroyed, we have no good plan to save both it and the captives. Old man, if he would just... I don't know" Severus trailed off.
"But he has the prisoners safe, right? They will be safe, right?" Amala said worriedly.
"Yes, they will, but you do not seem to understand" Severus said, annoyed. "The Green Flame Torch is going to be destroyed and I would give nearly anything for it not to be! The value of the Torch is very great, we cannot let such a powerful magical object disappear like that!"
Amala noticed him starting to snap at her and she smirked.
"Oh, really?" she asked.
"Don't you understand?!" he said desperately.
"Actually, I do" she replied with a small chuckle. "You're worried about the Torch! That's the spirit! So, are you positive the prisoners are safe?"
"The Order will do all that is possible" Severus snapped. Foolish girl, to think he had actually believed her to be an intelligent understanding young woman? She didn't get it...
"Good!" she said. "Listen, I need some potions. Freezing potions and smoking potions. Do you have such things or can you brew them?"
"I can brew them, but what for?" Severus asked, intrigued.
"Well, we had the very same feelings about the Torch ourselves, so we'll be the ones in charge of protecting it. Of course, the Order will take care of the prisoners and we'll try to keep the Death Eaters... happy by attacking them with freezing potions, spells, making them think that they're surrounded by mystical creatures and oh, yeah, an army of snakes!" Amala said, counting the means of attacking the Death Eaters on her fingers. "But we need somebody to get the prisoners safe –and I think that's your job- and we need free hand. They won't be expecting us, we'll come as a surprise. Harry will summon the Torch as soon as possible and after that, he'll probably stall Voldemort-"
Severus cringed badly and nearly slapped her for saying the name in front of him, but he stopped himself from doing it.
"-until Dumbledore comes!" she continued, sighing to herself. "So basically, we'll have both the prisoners and the Torch. But I need you to do me a favor: convince the Professors and prisoners to get the hell out of there and leave us there, we'll be ok."
Severus sighed to himself.
"You're crazy" he said slowly.
"I know, but give us a shot" she replied with a small smile.
"Very well, but there's one thing you should know" Severus said slowly. "The Dark Lord himself is a Parselmouth, he'll have no trouble in getting the snakes on his side"
"We hope he'll think that, too" she replied and smiled at him. "Actually, Harry promised them mice as a repayment for helping us and I don't think Voldemort will promise them anything"
"Stop saying the name!" Severus said loudly, his face becoming quite angry. "Stop it!"
Amala held her breath as he did that. Then, she said slowly and with a guilty and sorry face:
"Ok, I never knew how much it really hurt you" she said slowly. "Forgive me?"
"Yes" he replied, calmer. "But don't. ever. do. that."
Amala nodded slowly.
"Never again..." she said and added to herself 'until you can stand it'. "But please help us, Severus."
"Alright" he replied and smiled at her. Why did teens and even kids have better ideas than the mature and experienced? Well, he'd join them. Just one more thing... "Who's in this?" he asked.
"Me, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny Weasley, Jane Chase, Mark Evans, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Nev-"
"Draco Malfoy?!" Severus asked, surprised. "But he's a Slytherin!"
"Yeah, we noticed" she laughed. "He came up with the plan!"
"And what about Chase and Evans? Aren't they first years?"
"Yes, but they're good" Amala replied. "And remember, Jane will be a queen soon"
Severus took a deep breath. Yes, the queen of the Fal'sil was... twelve years old. Unbelievable.
"Who else?" he asked.
"Neville Longbottom" she replied and smiled.
"He'll blow you up!" Severus said, surprised. "I should know, I teach him!"
Amala snorted.
"No, he won't! He's much better with charms and hexes than at Potions and don't forget, he's great at Herbology. He's just working on trying to convince some plants to grow faster than usual and he will be in charge of the plant domain"
"Hmm" Severus said. "I guess I can go along with this plan of yours... So, I'll help with the captives and with getting them and the rest out of there. Got it"
"Perfect. Thanks for helping, Sev, you made my job a lot easier" she said with a smile and walked towards the door. "I'm happy we can count on you"
"You're welcomed" he replied and went to the fireplace, taking some floo powder. "Take care of yourself"
"I will" she replied and opened the door, hearing him say behind her "the Apothecary, Diagon Alley!". Yes, she had made a good decision by telling him about the plan. And if she hadn't, then... 'obliviate' would have worked, no?
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
And soon enough, the week of preparations was over and the two parties –Dumbledore's and Draco-Harry's- were ready for what they had planned. Well, almost ready. Dumbledore was polishing his broomstick and hoping he'd had a Firebolt instead of a Nimbus 1999. Maybe he should sell the one he had now and buy a Firebolt? He had no more time to do that.
To nearly everybody's surprise, Hermione and Neville were taking flying lessons along with Mark Evans –he supposedly wanted to make the team next year and the other two were nervous and wanted to do something to calm them or at least take their minds off Sunday night-. Dumbledore had noticed that, but he completely understood the two of Harry's friends, they didn't have Pensives. As for Mark, well, the kid had tried to fly during the year... Now he was coached by Harry, who was surprisingly calm.
In the other party, the preparations were ore intense than anyone had thought they would be. Nobody went to History of Magic, for one. Then, the snakes had reached the wonderful number of 200 –which meant 2000 mice, to everybody's despair, so everybody was summoning mice-. The 'mystical creatures' were spread all around the Forbidden Forest and Hermione had triple checked that they would appear when they would be hit with 'scourgify'.
Draco and Amala had made tones of potions which were bottled up in conjured vials. Amala smirked to herself knowing that Severus would also come with his share.
Also, Hermione was practicing the Disillusionment Charm on Jane and Mark who were grumbling at being disillusioned and un-disillusioned so many times.
But on Saturday night, everybody was finished doing their job and the snakes had been fed with half the mice and would be waiting in the Forest for the enemy to come. Their leader had turned out to be a tactical genius and would be waiting for Harry to exit the castle, then he would summon all the snakes through telling his subordinates about the coming. Soon, the snake population would be close to the Torch Bearer.
So, there they were, on Saturday, at ten o'clock at night, nearly all falling with tiredness since they had had a bad day. The couches in the secret room looked more cozy than ever.
"Ahem" Amala said. "Tonight we should all have a good sleep!"
"You try it, with the battle tomorrow night!" Jane said. "It's not possible"
"Two words" she said, smiling broadly: "Sleeping Draughts"
Draco grinned at her. Yep, she was bright, he had managed to realize that. Well, he'd had been surprised if she were an idiot, Severus Snape would never go out with an idiot.
"So, this way" he continued "everybody has a very nice sleep. And I mean everybody."
"So" Ginny continued "we'll be fighting at our best tomorrow! We've got everything ready and... think about all of this as a huge game where we have many advantages and it's nearly impossible to lose. No need to panic, but... CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
All of them flinched at her loud cry.
"Great, Ginny, you remind me of Moody" Harry said. "The fake one"
"Sorry, but I made my point, right?" she asked and grinned. "Good! Off to bed and don't wake up until ten o'clock tomorrow morning, we need you fresh tomorrow!"
"The whole thing will be at 1 a.m.!" Neville said. "We'll be tired by then!"
"That's why you can sleep all you want tomorrow morning and try to keep yourselves fresh, k?" she said. "Off to bed!"
They all groaned, grabbed their Sleeping Draughts and went to bed.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
To say that Sunday was one of the longest days in existence was a complete understatement. The students walked around doing nothing except discussing Harry's letter and the prisoners and how he would manage to make it alive out of that. Professors could be seen sighing all the time. Snape was snappy, even more than usual. Harry was somewhat calm and was playing a game of chess with Draco in the secret room –"I always lose when I play with Ron"-. But the pieces were complaining that the two weren't attentive.
The cobra that was the leader of Harry's snake army was slithering up and down in the room nervously.
-You sssure we will win?- it asked Harry suddenly and Draco gaped at it.
-Possitive- Harry replied. -But it'ssss not about winning or losssing, we will ssssurely win, it'sss about getting the prissonersss back, ssssee?-
-If you ssssay ssssso- it said slowly.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?" Draco asked looking at them.
"It asked whether it's sure we'll win and I said yes, that it was not whether we win or lose, because we will win, but it's about getting the prisoners back" Harry carelessly replied. "Check!"
Draco looked at the board and moved a piece.
"Check mate!" Harry grumbled at that, muttering something along the line of 'another chess master, my luck'. "How about we tell it that the mice are assured, no matter what?"
"I guess we could do that" Harry replied and Draco's eyes lit up at a sudden idea.
"I know! I've got it! Tell it that whatever the other snake-speaker offers, we plus with three mice! And that we give the same fee to any snake that might pass by, even if it's not in the army" Draco said, grinning. "Just in case the Dark Lord has his own army"
Harry grinned and called the cobra.
-Lisssten, in casse the other sssnake sssspeaker offersss you something to join him, we plusss three micssse, no matter what it issss, alright? And the same fee to any sssnake that issss around or that he hasss!-
-You are very kind, ssssir? How come?- it asked.
-Well, becaussse I'm on the light sssside and we are trying to make everybody happy, asss much asss posssible. All the good creaturesss and people, sssee?- Harry said in a burst of inspiration -The dark sssside ssssays many, and keepss itsss word, but takesss back a lot more than it givesss-
The cobra looked at him and nodded its head slowly.
-I ssee- it replied.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?!" Draco asked, pleading Harry.
"It said we were nice and why it's so and I said it's because we're on the light side and that we want all that is best for everybody and that the dark side promises much and gives much, but takes more than it gives" he replied quickly. "And now I'll ask it what its name is, so that we can talk to each other easier"
Draco nodded quickly and put himself in a comfortable position.
-What isss your name?- Harry asked.
-Name, sssir?- it asked, a bit surprised. -Bujanca they call me. I don't know why they calledss me that, it meansss 'cobra' in Sssanssskrit. And you are Harry, rightsss?-
-Yesss- Harry replied and then frowned. -But how do you knowss?-
-Ah, I, sssir, I underssstand human English, ssir- it replied with a chuckle and Harry made a face.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?!" Draco asked, fro the third time.
"That it understands English. And its name is Bujanca. It means snake in Sanskrit" Harry replied.
"Really?" Draco asked. "And now, now, what's it saying?"
"It's not saying anything, it's laughing" Harry replied and Draco made a face.
"Well, then, Bujanca..." Draco said slowly. "Do all summoned snakes have intelligence and all that? I've been wondering about the things we summon..."
The cobra stared at him and then replied slowly:
-Yess, they do. You sssee, the sssummoned sssnakess have a ssoul, like real onesss. Becaussse when you sssummon a ssnake, there are many ssnake ssoulsss that want to come... But if the ssummoned one is vanissshed away, the ssoul will wander around again. But we much prefer to live, yesss. It iss interesssting to sssee that humanss can't be vanisshed away like ssummoned animalsss. But you can't sssummon humansss either-
Draco stared at the cobra until it finished speaking and then Harry took a deep breath to start translating. Just then, though, Hermione, Amala and Ginny entered the room.
"Hi, guys! What's up?" Ginny asked as everybody else said hello.
"Well, Harry here was just about to translate what the cobra had said about why summoned snakes have a soul and all that" Draco replied and stared intently at Harry.
"'The cobra' has a name, its name is Bujanca" Harry said and smiled.
"Its name?" Amala said. "What about 'its' gender?"
Bujanca laughed again, making the others stare at her.
"It understands English" Harry explained.
-I am male- the cobra said and laughed again.
"And it says that it's a male" he added.
"Bujanca doesn't sound like a very manly name" Draco snorted.
-Hey, busssster, may I remind you you're called Malfoy, hmsss?- Bujanca replied in a mock-hurt voice.
"He asked you if you need to be reminded that your name is Malfoy" Harry said, seeing the odd stares that Bujanca was receiving.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Draco asked, hitting the air with his fist. "So, what did he say about the soul thing, huh?"
"He said that there are snake souls waiting and they come when a snake is summoned. And he said that they go back when they are vanished, but they prefer to stay alive. He also said that it is impossible to summon humans or to vanish humans" Harry replied and took a deep breath since he had said that in nearly one breath.
"That's something to remember" Hermione said. "Hey, Bujanca, do you think that after this is all over you could tell us some things about snake habits and knowledge?"
All the others stared at her as she smiled to the cobra sheepishly.
-I guesssss I could- it replied kindly.
"He said he could" Harry said smiling at his very red friend.
"Thanks" Hermione said and Bujanca opened his mouth to say something, but then shot a glance at Harry and turned back to Hermione and gave a small nod.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Nine teens were on the top of the West Tower at 12:15 at night. Hermione was just casting Disillusionment Charms over them and Draco was telling them again and again how they had to split up at first, travel low and fast so they wouldn't be seen from the forest and reunite at the funny-looking tree at the entrance of the Forest. From there, Draco would lead and, so he could be seen by everybody, he would carry a black rag at his broomstick. The signal for attacking was his wolf cry –they had double checked there was no full moon so there would be no werewolf problems with that one- and then, Bujanca would summon the snakes, Mark and Amala would uncover the summoned things that looked like mystical creatures –'don't know what they are, can't fight back, right?'- and everybody else would attack all they could. Neville had already received his task of carrying and using some even better plants than they had had in mind at first: seeds that would instantly grow large when they were wetted with special potions...
Hermione finished tapping them with her wand and she was quite pleased at herself. Draco had managed to establish the routes.
"Look, the sign!" said a voice, probably Luna's.
Indeed, a small candle had appeared at the edge of the Forest and somewhere down there, Harry had slowly started walking towards it.
"12:30" Draco said. "Ok, guys, move it. We meet at the funny shaped tree, right? Ginny, you first, take the right route. Neville second, the left. Amala third, the right, Mark fourth, the left..."
He said it making slow pauses between calling out their names and all they could see were broomsticks flying through the air and quickly managing to get to less than two meters from the ground. The Order was nowhere to be seen and Draco's greatest fear was that they could see the booms before they reached the forest's edge or worse, one of them would crash in an order member.
After everyone had left, he waited for a second before going down on his broom also, diving to merely a meter off ground and going straight for the funny-shaped tree.
"Everybody here?" he whispered. "Ginny?"
"Yes"
"Amala"
"Over here"
"Neville
"Here, Draco"
"Mark"
"Yep"
"Jane"
"Just made it"
"Luna"
"Mhm"
"Ron?"
"Yes"
"Hermione"
"Over here"
"So that's all. We ready?"
"Yes" said a few voices.
"Follow me then and don't get lost"
Although it was weird for everybody to follow a broomstick with a rag attached and which had air moving slightly above it as it would over fire –due to the nature of the Disillusionment Charm- they complied and soon they made it to the floating candle. As planned before, Draco quietly flew over the trees of the Forbidden Forest until he thought there were about forty meters and then he slowly, even slower than a man would walk, he went through the branches of the trees, low enough to see what was down there.
And then he saw it. A sickening sight: ten Death Eaters and seven tied up men in a circle with the Death Eaters on the outer side. And of course, in front of them, stood the Dark Lord himself, dressed in his black robes, but he wasn't hooded and masked. Instead, Draco could see his extremely white skin and his red snake-like eyes. He understood quickly that Harry had not made it there yet.
He saw the other broomsticks also hover over the group of eighteen below and his mind thought quickly about weirdly, mathematics. He nearly snorted to himself, but decided not to, though. But he really thought it was funny that he thought that three times six was eighteen and that six-six-six was the devil's number. He shook his head and concentrated on what would happen below. But where was Potter?
It seemed like one of the Death Eaters was thinking along the same lines.
"Maybe he won't come" she said slowly.
"He will come, Bella" the Dark Lord replied darkly. "He is a true idiot, like only a Gryffindor can be and he will try to save his friends... and even those who he doesn't know"
"But let me kill one of them. For him being late" Bella said. "This one, the one I killed before"
"No, Bella" he replied and turned to glare at her. "He is the main part of this. The boy wants him more than he does anybody."
Bella made an unpleased sound before she settled down to where she was before. They waited for two more minutes before a green light started coming in the Forest. Nobody else could, but Draco saw that the Dark Lord's eyes suddenly got wider in fear and that he wasn't comfortable at all.
Soon, the Green Flame Torch and its bearer, Harry, that was, were face to face with the Dark Lord.
"Give me the Torch, boy, or they die" the snake-like man said.
"Release them and I give you the Torch" Harry replied.
"Oh, no, no, no, boy!" the Dark Lord said, giving a small laugh. "So that then you can attack me?"
"Then, remove the ropes from them and I pass you the Torch. The moment the Torch reaches your hand, they are allowed to go unharmed" Harry said, a green light flickering in his eyes, making him look noble and terrifying.
"Very well" the other replied with a deadly smile. "Remove the ropes!"
The Death Eaters complied and all the captives got on their feet, ready to run.
"Now, the Torch, boy!" he spat in his horrible laugh and Harry pointed his wand at the Torch and slowly lifted it off the ground before he floated it towards Voldemort, who was three meters away.
Everybody stared at the Torch that was floating and when it reached the Dark Lord's hand, the captives ran at top speed toward the direction from which Harry had come from, but making sure they weren't too close to the evil mastermind.
The Dark Lord smiled a horrible smile at seeing the Torch in his hands and he cried:
"Kill them!"
That was the signal for everybody. Draco howled loudly, making Voldemort look up at the moon for a second, losing precious time. The Order of the Phoenix seemed to appear out of nowhere, but they were actually throwing off their Invisibility Cloaks. Harry summoned the Torch with all his power and the Dark Lord gave a cry at losing it just when he was about to do something to it with his wand.
The Order got the captives under cover and switched to defensive, but the nine in the trees were quite offensive and they were shooting all they could at the Death Eaters. Everywhere, weird creatures appeared and some plants started falling on the ground, growing as quickly as possible.
The Dark Lord laughed however and hissed and a lot of snakes appeared, but before he knew it, he was the one attacked by the snakes and not his enemies.
But he smiled wickedly and raised his wand and cried out something Draco couldn't understand. The next thing he knew was that he crushed two meters on a cold floor, no more broom, no more Forest, just a huge cold and dark room.
He quickly understood that the Dark Lord had taken them to his castle, where he had more of an advantage and he realized that there were indeed about forty Death Eaters around. The snake-man summoned the Torch to himself and laughed in Harry's face –he had twenty wands pointed at him, just in case- and also told his servants that there were nine more people in the room and they were to find them and tie them up.
Then, he left out of the room, the Torch in his hand and the Death Eaters noticed their shapes and took them down. If it hadn't been for the fall, Draco would have fought back... But now, he was too hurt.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
AN: What, you thought they'd win? –for a second there, so did I- Unfortunately, Voldemort has a few tricks up his sleeve... :-)))
Remember the reviews thing? It still stands! So, guys, you have plenty of reasons to review. See you soon, take care, enjoy hot summer and all that. Love y'all.
To:
Inu-kokoro: Thanks! I really liked the Draco-Ginny pairing when I first read about it, so I said to myself: "Well, why not?!" And I'm posting... Promised I would, didn't I?
Tsuetsu: Thanks! I'm really glad that my writing skills are getting better... In fact, that's why I started writing. That and the obvious obsession for Harry Potter, of course! And thanks for the review on my other story!
Krystal: Thanks and I'm glad you like my story! As for the reviews part... well, the deal's working so far, isn't it? ;-)
Rhys Hiscock: No, Kingsley isn't a Death Eater. He just happened to be on the wrong side of an Imperius Curse from Lucius. Thanks for the review!
Gochan Son: Thanks! And I promise I will!
Other chapters:
I'm not the weakest link: Thanks! Glad you like it!
Harryp/charmedfreak: I'm glad you like it and I'm sorry for the Snape Amala, but I really enjoy writing it, so I'm afraid it stays. Sorry about that. But you will see why it's there in the sequel –yes, there will be a sequel. I don't intend on killing Voldemort right now-.
Dedication: to the Red Dragon's Order (at the top of her lungs Long Live the Queen of Fanfiction! people stare Sorry...)
Chapter 33: What He Planned and What Came Out
Sunday morning, a week after the ball, Harry stared as an unknown black owl delivered him a letter. He picked it up and opened it just as the owl left.
And as he opened it, his heart stopped beating for a second: he knew that handwriting. Yes, it had been four years ago that he had seen it first and last, yes, he had only seen a few lines written in that handwriting, but he knew it better than nearly any handwriting: it belonged to Tom Marvolo Riddle, alias 'I am Lord Voldemort' as he had so nicely put it, alias 'You- Know-Who', as the others has said. Now, why would Voldemort send him a letter. Had he hit himself on the head or something?
He started reading it, his heart in his throat:
"Potter,
I am hereby announcing you that your precious godfather, Sirius Black as well as Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shakelbolt, Remus Lupin, Richard Drum and Rasputin Adrianov are now my prisoners. As precious as their lives might be to me, I agree to make a trade and offer you both their lives and their freedom. In return I want the Green Flame Torch.
If you wish to make the trade, come with it in the Forbidden Forest at 1 a.m. on the 3rd of June, fifty meters from the sign you will see at the edge of the Forest. If you do not wish to trade, you will find their bodies the next morning on the edge of the Forest.
Signed:
Lord Voldemort. "
Harry gaped at the letter. Sirius was trapped! And he'd be killed if Harry didn't go there on the 3rd of June. That meant a weak after!
"Harry, mate, what's wrong?" Ron asked and Harry showed him the letter.
Ron read the name at the end and gaped.
"For the love of God..." he said slowly. "You-Know-Who sent you a letter!"
"Read it" Harry muttered darkly.
Ron read it and his eyes widened.
"What the-? He's got all these people! Who're Drum and Adrianov?" he asked, frowning.
"They're Aurors" Hermione replied. Apparently, she had been reading over his shoulder.
"How do you know?" Ron asked, intrigued.
"Their names sometimes appear in the newspaper" she replied. "What do we do?"
"We give him the Torch" Harry said reluctantly.
"Give him the Torch? No way!" Hermione said and stared at Harry. "You're out of your mind!"
"But then..."
"Sorry to interrupt you, but you look like you've got a message from the Dark Lord" said a silky voice behind Ron and he turned to look at Draco Malfoy.
"We... I mean, Harry did" Ron replied and Draco's eyes widened and he gaped.
"For God's sake" he muttered and shook his head. "I was joking"
Draco snatched the letter from Ron's hand and started reading it aloud.
"Potter. Wow, that's warm. I am hereby announcing you that your precious godfather, Sirius Black, you know who your godfather is, don't you Potter? Thought so. as well as Nymph-Nymphadora Tonks, poor woman, she has a horrible name Kingsley Shakelbolt, Remus Lupin, what's the werewolf doing in this? Richard Drum and Rasputin Adrianov, great, Aurors! are now my prisoners. Shit, pardon me, but shit. As precious as their lives might be to me and I bet they are, Dark Lord, I bet they are, I agree to make a trade and offer you both their lives and their freedom Mhm. That sounds fun. In return I want the Green Flame Torch. Oh, triple shit. If you wish to make the trade, come with it in the Forbidden Forest at 1 a.m. on the 3rd of June great, you have to break the curfew, too, fifty meters from the sign you will see at the edge of the Forest. Wow, you'll see the sign, but no-one else will, huh? If you do not wish to trade, you will find their bodies the next morning on the edge of the Forest. Well, at least we can have a nice funeral if we don't make it, huh? Signed: Lord Voldemort Ugh, how can he sign with his name?!"
The ones around Draco were gaping at him as he was reading and commenting Voldemort's letter.
"So, Potter, what will you do?" the Slytherin asked.
"Go talk to Dumbledore" Harry replied and took his letter back.
"And if he says: let Black die, we need the Torch, you'll go ahead and get the mutt and the rest of the gang by yourself, huh?" Draco said. "That would make sure you wouldn't lose your reputation of the least obedient student around."
Harry realized that of course he wouldn't listen to Dumbledore if he said that he should let Sirius and the others die. But he was sure the old mage wouldn't let them die. So, he went to the Head table and straight to Dumbledore, waving the letter in front of the Headmaster.
"Sir, I received this letter five minutes ago" he said slowly and Dumbledore took it. The moment he saw the name at the bottom of the page, he let out an 'oh, my' and Severus Snape leaned over from his left to see what was written. He gaped slowly and then stared at Harry.
"Mr. Potter, you are in trouble" he whispered to Harry who had a very bad feeling about this.
After reading the letter several times, Dumbledore put it down in front of them and put his face in his hands.
"What do we do, Severus?" he asked slowly.
"I really doubt that giving the Torch to the Dark Lord would be a good idea" he replied. "But... letting them die would be a very bad tactical movement."
Harry was just about to complain to himself that Snape was insensitive and rock-hearted, but he realized that the man had said that it was 'a very bad tactical movement' meaning that it would be even worse. However, Harry was there and he was not allowed to see that the Potion Master had a heart.
"I shall think about this, Harry" Dumbledore said and Harry went back to his table where many people had gathered.
"Come with me, Harry" Luna said, taking his hand and the others followed them as they walked out of the Great Hall. Everywhere, people had gathered, knowing that the great 'Boy-Who-Lived' had received a letter from the great 'Man-Who-Tried-To-Kill-Him'. From most tables, there were silent prayers that the former would soon be 'Teen-Who-Lived' and the latter 'Man-Who- Didn't'.
Harry was led by Luna to the secret room in Hogwarts where he had put the Green Flame Torch in and he saw that there were nine other people there besides him: Jane, Mark, Hermione, Ron, Amala, Neville, Luna, Draco and Ginny. In other words, the exact formation that went to get Stoney the First. Or was it the Second? Anyway, it was really weird for all of them to be staying there again.
Draco threw himself in an armchair and noticed:
"There aren't enough seats here, we should have a couch or two"
As if on command, the four armchairs turned into couches –making Draco lose his balance since he was sitting in one- and the table jumped aside.
"Whoa!" he said, slightly gaping. "Is this normal?"
"I don't think so" Hermione said, shaking her head. "The one who made this room must have been very powerful, everything is alive... Even that book!"
"Yes" Draco muttered to himself and spread himself on half the couch. "Well, sit down, I have a plan! We can ponder about the weirdness of this situation later."
"You already thought of something?" Ron asked disbelieving, but sat down, just like everybody else.
"Yes, already, I'm a Malfoy, remember?" Draco said then snorted to himself. "Although I'm not sure if I should be this proud of my name anymore"
He looked at the others, his blonde hair spiky and his grey eyes twinkling dangerously. He gave a small smile before he said deviously:
"Well, it's a Slytherin plan... bet the Dark Lord has one of the type, too" A smile spread across his face. "But he won't expect you to have a Slytherin plan! Oh, no, he'll expect you to have a typically Hufflepuff-Gryffindor plan and to expect him to play fairly."
Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Draco quieted him by raising his hand.
"So, on to my plan!" he said and smiled deviously. "We want the prisoners and the Torch, right?"
"Right" the others said slowly. Where was he going?
"How about we keep them both?" Draco suggested. "The Dark Lord is quite uncomfortable with the Green Flame Torch since Harry can defeat him using it. If Harry carries the Torch, he won't dare attack him. However, the moment he lets go of it, he's lost, am I right? Because the Dark Lord won't agree on just letting Potter go"
"But he has to, it's in the agreement" Neville said and Draco shook his head.
"Definitely not! He said he'd let the prisoners go. Not Harry. He'll skin him alive" Draco replied with a frown and a look that said 'come on, how believing can you be?'
Harry cringed, but Draco didn't notice it as he calmly spoke forward.
"And it's not sure he'd let even the prisoners go. He might take the Torch, destroy it and kill everybody around with a bit of help from some trusty Death Eaters, maybe my father included. So, what's the solution?" he asked and smiled as if expecting them to jump up, giving the answer. However, nobody did so.
"I have no clue" Neville muttered shaking his head slightly. Draco rolled his eyes and started speaking again.
"I'm quite sure Dumbledore will send Harry backup so that he wouldn't be killed by the Dark Lord" he said with a false sigh and then started to grin as he said in a more and more excited tone: "But alas, the Dark Lord and Dumbledore will have no clue that there will be two back-up parties. One will make sure that Harry and the prisoners are safe and the second one will make sure the Torch will be back in our hands!"
Draco punched the air, making the others stare.
"Excuse me?" Ron said, gaping.
"Weasel, don't you get it?!" Draco said, excited. "Dumbledore will concentrate on getting everybody safe out of the Forest. We will concentrate on getting the Torch back! Harry's the bloody bearer, he can summon it, for God's sake! The ten of us will take care of the Torch! And Harry will be able to use it against the Dark Lord enough for everybody to flee. Including himself! He'll retreat towards Hogwarts and the wards will keep the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters away. Besides, Dumbledore will be there to help. It can't be another battle, there's no way the Dark Lord will be there with a huge army! So basically, we'll be safe and so will the Torch. All we have to do is get You-Know-Who to let go of the prisoners and everything will be fine!"
The others stared at him and Ron muttered:
"Good plan, mate". Then, he frowned. "But how do we get there without Dumbledore and his party and You-Know-Who and his party seeing us?"
"Ah, that's your problem" Draco said. "You're the tactical genius, I've heard of the great chess that you play. Think of anything, Granger will help us put it in practice. Potter will have to hold his head on his shoulders and duel the Dark Lord, that's enough on his shoulders. Ginny will be the second in command, she's a great leader. Wright will have to talk to the Professors to get them to retreat to Hogwarts. Longbottom, do you know any small plants that might attack the Dark Lord?"
"Yes, but how will we get them there?" he asked.
"Well, it's up to Mark Evans with transportations, I heard he's particularly good with levitation charms, he can even transport many objects in the same time. Lovegood, you and Chase can easily create images of not-proved-to-exist creatures, right?"
"Right" the two replied. "I could show her how they look like" Luna added, dreamily.
"And I could transfigure some things to look like those creatures..." Jane said thoughtfully. "It'll take time, though, I'm good at Transfigurations, but I'm not McGonagall"
"And then we could levitate them to the place where Harry will meet You- Know-Who!" Luna said with a grin.
"No, no!" Ron said. "I've a better idea!"
The others stared at him as he said, turning red:
"How quick can you transfigure them?"
"I don't know... It might take a whole hour to do one creature" Jane replied, frowning.
"How about if we put them in the Forest and covered them with leaves and maybe earth and then, when You-Know-Who comes, we could uncover them!" Ron suggested. "And we could take some plants all over the Forest, too"
"I know a flew plants that can move on small distances" Neville said with a frown. "If I carry a bit of meat behind me, I'll end up with some killers behind me.
"That's the spirit!" Draco said and got up. "Move it, people, we only have a week! Me and Ginny will help with whatever we can, I'll brew potions to defeat these idiots and she'll help transfigure and all that. Potter, maybe you should help with those things, too. Granger, make Weasley's plans work!"
They all nodded and split up, Ginny, Jane and Luna going to gather whatever useless objects they could find to transfigure into things that looked like creatures, Ron was starting to shoot ideas at Hermione who was writing them down on paper, Neville had ran off to the greenhouses –where he had permanent access granted by Sprout- to take some plants and to convince them to breed. Draco and Amala had run off to brew potions and Harry was helping Luna and co. to get useless objects. Hey went outside to pick up flowers and tree branches and twigs, making others stare at them, but they didn't care.
All in all, it would be a hard week.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"So, Albus, what do we do?" Minerva asked. All the teachers were in the staff room and were awaiting for the Headmaster to tell them what they should do.
"Well, there is a problem" Albus said and shook his head.
"Really?!" Severus sarcastically said. "And I who thought everything was sunny and happy!"
Albus speared him a glance before he looked back to the other teachers, continuing as if there had been no interruption whatsoever.
"Well, unfortunately, Voldemort" a few of the teachers moaned in complain at his continuous use of that name "-is not going to play fair"
Severus rolled his eyes at that. Really?! How did he figure that out?
"He will probably try to get hold both of the Torch and Harry" Dumbledore continued. "But he is afraid of the Torch whenever somebody is carrying it. So, as long as Harry holds it, there will be no problem. The problem will come when he will have left the Torch out of his hand. Then, all hell will break loose."
'Really subtle, Albus, that will make them feel calm and ready to think straight' Severus thought to himself hoping that for once the Headmaster would use Legilimency to read his thoughts that cried of 'stop babbling!'
As suspected, all teachers cringed and shifted uncomfortably in their seats. All except Minerva, Flitwick, Severus and Iris. And of course, Albus, but that didn't count.
"Therefore, we must have a plan and I daresay we should include the Order of the Phoenix in this, shall we? My plan is that we make a hidden escort for Harry when he goes into the Forest. I will make sure that Voldemort" some cringed and the others sighed helplessly "is occupied and will not have time to kill the prisoners. However, I am afraid I cannot interfere so that he won't destroy the Torch quickly. I need to stay away from him so that he cannot notice me and I will never make it in time. But you will be there, make sure the prisoners are safe... and Harry."
Severus sighed.
"We'll make sure we'll do that, Albus" he said slowly. "But if he gets in the battle, there will be many deaths"
"He will be preoccupied by destroying the Torch" Albus said. "He won't get into battle, but he will make sure there will be quite a few Death Eaters around him, fighting against the ones protecting the prisoners. We'll have to get them out of there quickly"
"Very well, Albus" Severus said.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Back in the hidden room, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Ron were thinking of strategies for getting in the Forest. Harry was pacing, Hermione was sitting thoughtful on an armchair, Ron was lying on a couch, thinking and Draco had a huge book in his arms.
"Will the sign be there at 1 a.m. or will you have to get there at 1 a.m.?" Hermione asked.
"I have to be there at 1 a.m." Harry replied.
"Hmm" she said slowly to herself. "But it will probably be there for at least half an hour, right? To make things safe for the guy who gets there, right?"
"I guess so" Harry replied and Ron beamed and jumped up and down.
"I know! I've got it!" he said. "There will be nine of us, right?"
"Right!" Harry replied.
"Wonderful! We can sit at the top of the West Tower, nobody really goes there!" Ron said. "With broomsticks, I mean. We'll of course have to teach Mark and Neville to ride, but it won't be a problem"
"It will, actually" Draco said with a laugh. "Ok, who's training them in basic flying skills?"
"I will" Harry answered. "Hermione? Do you need help with flying?"
"Maybe" she thoughtfully said. "But how will we get in the Forest unnoticed?"
"How about turning ourselves invisible?" Ron proposed. "I mean, it would help? And silencing charms! Yeah! 'Mione?"
"Um... I don't know and invisibility charms that would work fine... They're not easy to do, you know?" Hermione said. "But maybe I could find something..."
"I know something...the Disillusionment charm!" Harry said. "Moody used it on me last year when they rescued me from the Dursleys"
"Right... I'll go check on that one" Hermione replied and started looking through the books in the library. "If I can't find anything here, do you think I'll find something in the Room of Requirement?"
"Maybe" Draco replied, sticking his nose back in the book.
"What are you reading there, anyway?" Harry asked, frowning.
"I'm not quite sure, the thing doesn't have a title" Draco replied. "But it's quite fun to read, actually. Something about hexes and charms, you should see! tones of them. I'm currently trying to find some efficient and simple ones."
Harry walked over to Draco and stared at the pages that had moving pictures on them.
"This one is nice" the blond said. "How about we use it? I mean, our enemies will be quite pissed at being trapped in balls..."
But Harry had another thing in mind. He stared at the spell right below that one.
"Remember our second year? The dueling class?" Harry asked.
"Yes, quite well actually" Draco replied and stared at Harry. "But you should know, the Dark Lord is also a Parselmouth, so that won't work"
"What if it does?" Harry asked. "Use the spell, will you?"
Draco stood up, took out his wand and, under the surprised eyes of Ron and Hermione, cried:
"Serpensortia!"
A snake shot out of his wand, making Hermione cry out in surprise and Harry stared at it and hissed.
-You!-
-Yessssss?- the cobra asked.
-I need your help- Harry hissed. -Would you like to help me, hmsssssss?-
-Yesss- it replied, staring at him confusedly.
-But you mussssssst promissssse not to help another- Harry hissed. -Do you promisssssse?-
-Yessss!- it said and stared at him confused.
-I need you to help me fight againsssssst a ssssssnake sssspeaker and hissssss ssssservantsss, human ssservantsssss. Willing?-
-Yessss- the cobra replied and looked at him, measuring him up and down.
-I'll give you command of an army then, rightsssssssssss?- Harry said, smiling at the snake and thinking about his idea.
-Yessssss- the cobra said, seeming to smile and to finally understand something.
-And I will offer you micsse to eat, say twenty to you, ten to the otherssssss, alright?- Harry said, suddenly struck by inspiration.
-You have yourssself a deal- it replied, for the first time not saying 'yes'.
-Great! I'll give you half sssssoon, before we fight and the other half after, rightssssss?-
-Yessss, ssire, you have a deal!- the cobra replied and nodded happily.
-But until then, pleasssse don't hurt anyone, rigthss?- Harry asked.
-Of courssse!- it said with a true snake smile.
Harry beamed at the others.
"Well, we might need some mice to feed our new snake army, under the command of this cobra" he said and the others smiled happily. "We'll feed them ten mice per snake and this wonderful commander twenty. Half now, half after and they won't betray us"
"Well, Potter, seems like we'll be summoning mice" Draco said with a sigh. "No problem"
Hermione looked thoughtful at them before she waved her wand and muttered something, a huge glass empty aquarium appearing.
"You can gather them in this" she said with a sigh. "I don't like the idea of killing so many mice, but I don't think it would be killing them if we summon them"
Harry and Draco smiled at each other and Harry started summoning mice while Draco was summoning snakes.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Amala was going down the corridors of Hogwarts to meet Severus. She had to find out what Dumbledore's plans were. And she was quite sure he would have a few suggestions.
She knocked on the door and heard a quiet 'enter' from inside. She opened the door, entered as quietly as a mouse and closed the door behind her.
"Hello, Severus" she said slowly.
"Amala!" he said with a sigh. "I'm sorry to say I'm quite busy at the moment, but..."
"I'm quite busy at the moment, too" she said quickly. "But this isn't a pleasure visit"
She decided to go straight with the whole thing... well, as straight as she could.
"No?" he said, then mentally scolded himself. Of course she would be worrying for Potter!
"No, Sev. Actually, I was wondering what Albus had in mind for these events" she said slowly. "It's quite a difficult problem..."
Her voice got quieter and quieter, but Severus could hear her and he let out a concerned sigh.
"He will be there, but I don't think –and neither does he, as a matter of fact- that the Torch will make it. It is one of the greatest problems we have, it is an ancient magical object, we cannot allow it to be destroyed, but we cannot allow the captives to die. I do believe the Torch will be destroyed, we have no good plan to save both it and the captives. Old man, if he would just... I don't know" Severus trailed off.
"But he has the prisoners safe, right? They will be safe, right?" Amala said worriedly.
"Yes, they will, but you do not seem to understand" Severus said, annoyed. "The Green Flame Torch is going to be destroyed and I would give nearly anything for it not to be! The value of the Torch is very great, we cannot let such a powerful magical object disappear like that!"
Amala noticed him starting to snap at her and she smirked.
"Oh, really?" she asked.
"Don't you understand?!" he said desperately.
"Actually, I do" she replied with a small chuckle. "You're worried about the Torch! That's the spirit! So, are you positive the prisoners are safe?"
"The Order will do all that is possible" Severus snapped. Foolish girl, to think he had actually believed her to be an intelligent understanding young woman? She didn't get it...
"Good!" she said. "Listen, I need some potions. Freezing potions and smoking potions. Do you have such things or can you brew them?"
"I can brew them, but what for?" Severus asked, intrigued.
"Well, we had the very same feelings about the Torch ourselves, so we'll be the ones in charge of protecting it. Of course, the Order will take care of the prisoners and we'll try to keep the Death Eaters... happy by attacking them with freezing potions, spells, making them think that they're surrounded by mystical creatures and oh, yeah, an army of snakes!" Amala said, counting the means of attacking the Death Eaters on her fingers. "But we need somebody to get the prisoners safe –and I think that's your job- and we need free hand. They won't be expecting us, we'll come as a surprise. Harry will summon the Torch as soon as possible and after that, he'll probably stall Voldemort-"
Severus cringed badly and nearly slapped her for saying the name in front of him, but he stopped himself from doing it.
"-until Dumbledore comes!" she continued, sighing to herself. "So basically, we'll have both the prisoners and the Torch. But I need you to do me a favor: convince the Professors and prisoners to get the hell out of there and leave us there, we'll be ok."
Severus sighed to himself.
"You're crazy" he said slowly.
"I know, but give us a shot" she replied with a small smile.
"Very well, but there's one thing you should know" Severus said slowly. "The Dark Lord himself is a Parselmouth, he'll have no trouble in getting the snakes on his side"
"We hope he'll think that, too" she replied and smiled at him. "Actually, Harry promised them mice as a repayment for helping us and I don't think Voldemort will promise them anything"
"Stop saying the name!" Severus said loudly, his face becoming quite angry. "Stop it!"
Amala held her breath as he did that. Then, she said slowly and with a guilty and sorry face:
"Ok, I never knew how much it really hurt you" she said slowly. "Forgive me?"
"Yes" he replied, calmer. "But don't. ever. do. that."
Amala nodded slowly.
"Never again..." she said and added to herself 'until you can stand it'. "But please help us, Severus."
"Alright" he replied and smiled at her. Why did teens and even kids have better ideas than the mature and experienced? Well, he'd join them. Just one more thing... "Who's in this?" he asked.
"Me, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny Weasley, Jane Chase, Mark Evans, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Nev-"
"Draco Malfoy?!" Severus asked, surprised. "But he's a Slytherin!"
"Yeah, we noticed" she laughed. "He came up with the plan!"
"And what about Chase and Evans? Aren't they first years?"
"Yes, but they're good" Amala replied. "And remember, Jane will be a queen soon"
Severus took a deep breath. Yes, the queen of the Fal'sil was... twelve years old. Unbelievable.
"Who else?" he asked.
"Neville Longbottom" she replied and smiled.
"He'll blow you up!" Severus said, surprised. "I should know, I teach him!"
Amala snorted.
"No, he won't! He's much better with charms and hexes than at Potions and don't forget, he's great at Herbology. He's just working on trying to convince some plants to grow faster than usual and he will be in charge of the plant domain"
"Hmm" Severus said. "I guess I can go along with this plan of yours... So, I'll help with the captives and with getting them and the rest out of there. Got it"
"Perfect. Thanks for helping, Sev, you made my job a lot easier" she said with a smile and walked towards the door. "I'm happy we can count on you"
"You're welcomed" he replied and went to the fireplace, taking some floo powder. "Take care of yourself"
"I will" she replied and opened the door, hearing him say behind her "the Apothecary, Diagon Alley!". Yes, she had made a good decision by telling him about the plan. And if she hadn't, then... 'obliviate' would have worked, no?
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
And soon enough, the week of preparations was over and the two parties –Dumbledore's and Draco-Harry's- were ready for what they had planned. Well, almost ready. Dumbledore was polishing his broomstick and hoping he'd had a Firebolt instead of a Nimbus 1999. Maybe he should sell the one he had now and buy a Firebolt? He had no more time to do that.
To nearly everybody's surprise, Hermione and Neville were taking flying lessons along with Mark Evans –he supposedly wanted to make the team next year and the other two were nervous and wanted to do something to calm them or at least take their minds off Sunday night-. Dumbledore had noticed that, but he completely understood the two of Harry's friends, they didn't have Pensives. As for Mark, well, the kid had tried to fly during the year... Now he was coached by Harry, who was surprisingly calm.
In the other party, the preparations were ore intense than anyone had thought they would be. Nobody went to History of Magic, for one. Then, the snakes had reached the wonderful number of 200 –which meant 2000 mice, to everybody's despair, so everybody was summoning mice-. The 'mystical creatures' were spread all around the Forbidden Forest and Hermione had triple checked that they would appear when they would be hit with 'scourgify'.
Draco and Amala had made tones of potions which were bottled up in conjured vials. Amala smirked to herself knowing that Severus would also come with his share.
Also, Hermione was practicing the Disillusionment Charm on Jane and Mark who were grumbling at being disillusioned and un-disillusioned so many times.
But on Saturday night, everybody was finished doing their job and the snakes had been fed with half the mice and would be waiting in the Forest for the enemy to come. Their leader had turned out to be a tactical genius and would be waiting for Harry to exit the castle, then he would summon all the snakes through telling his subordinates about the coming. Soon, the snake population would be close to the Torch Bearer.
So, there they were, on Saturday, at ten o'clock at night, nearly all falling with tiredness since they had had a bad day. The couches in the secret room looked more cozy than ever.
"Ahem" Amala said. "Tonight we should all have a good sleep!"
"You try it, with the battle tomorrow night!" Jane said. "It's not possible"
"Two words" she said, smiling broadly: "Sleeping Draughts"
Draco grinned at her. Yep, she was bright, he had managed to realize that. Well, he'd had been surprised if she were an idiot, Severus Snape would never go out with an idiot.
"So, this way" he continued "everybody has a very nice sleep. And I mean everybody."
"So" Ginny continued "we'll be fighting at our best tomorrow! We've got everything ready and... think about all of this as a huge game where we have many advantages and it's nearly impossible to lose. No need to panic, but... CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
All of them flinched at her loud cry.
"Great, Ginny, you remind me of Moody" Harry said. "The fake one"
"Sorry, but I made my point, right?" she asked and grinned. "Good! Off to bed and don't wake up until ten o'clock tomorrow morning, we need you fresh tomorrow!"
"The whole thing will be at 1 a.m.!" Neville said. "We'll be tired by then!"
"That's why you can sleep all you want tomorrow morning and try to keep yourselves fresh, k?" she said. "Off to bed!"
They all groaned, grabbed their Sleeping Draughts and went to bed.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
To say that Sunday was one of the longest days in existence was a complete understatement. The students walked around doing nothing except discussing Harry's letter and the prisoners and how he would manage to make it alive out of that. Professors could be seen sighing all the time. Snape was snappy, even more than usual. Harry was somewhat calm and was playing a game of chess with Draco in the secret room –"I always lose when I play with Ron"-. But the pieces were complaining that the two weren't attentive.
The cobra that was the leader of Harry's snake army was slithering up and down in the room nervously.
-You sssure we will win?- it asked Harry suddenly and Draco gaped at it.
-Possitive- Harry replied. -But it'ssss not about winning or losssing, we will ssssurely win, it'sss about getting the prissonersss back, ssssee?-
-If you ssssay ssssso- it said slowly.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?" Draco asked looking at them.
"It asked whether it's sure we'll win and I said yes, that it was not whether we win or lose, because we will win, but it's about getting the prisoners back" Harry carelessly replied. "Check!"
Draco looked at the board and moved a piece.
"Check mate!" Harry grumbled at that, muttering something along the line of 'another chess master, my luck'. "How about we tell it that the mice are assured, no matter what?"
"I guess we could do that" Harry replied and Draco's eyes lit up at a sudden idea.
"I know! I've got it! Tell it that whatever the other snake-speaker offers, we plus with three mice! And that we give the same fee to any snake that might pass by, even if it's not in the army" Draco said, grinning. "Just in case the Dark Lord has his own army"
Harry grinned and called the cobra.
-Lisssten, in casse the other sssnake sssspeaker offersss you something to join him, we plusss three micssse, no matter what it issss, alright? And the same fee to any sssnake that issss around or that he hasss!-
-You are very kind, ssssir? How come?- it asked.
-Well, becaussse I'm on the light sssside and we are trying to make everybody happy, asss much asss posssible. All the good creaturesss and people, sssee?- Harry said in a burst of inspiration -The dark sssside ssssays many, and keepss itsss word, but takesss back a lot more than it givesss-
The cobra looked at him and nodded its head slowly.
-I ssee- it replied.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?!" Draco asked, pleading Harry.
"It said we were nice and why it's so and I said it's because we're on the light side and that we want all that is best for everybody and that the dark side promises much and gives much, but takes more than it gives" he replied quickly. "And now I'll ask it what its name is, so that we can talk to each other easier"
Draco nodded quickly and put himself in a comfortable position.
-What isss your name?- Harry asked.
-Name, sssir?- it asked, a bit surprised. -Bujanca they call me. I don't know why they calledss me that, it meansss 'cobra' in Sssanssskrit. And you are Harry, rightsss?-
-Yesss- Harry replied and then frowned. -But how do you knowss?-
-Ah, I, sssir, I underssstand human English, ssir- it replied with a chuckle and Harry made a face.
"What's it saying? What's it saying?!" Draco asked, fro the third time.
"That it understands English. And its name is Bujanca. It means snake in Sanskrit" Harry replied.
"Really?" Draco asked. "And now, now, what's it saying?"
"It's not saying anything, it's laughing" Harry replied and Draco made a face.
"Well, then, Bujanca..." Draco said slowly. "Do all summoned snakes have intelligence and all that? I've been wondering about the things we summon..."
The cobra stared at him and then replied slowly:
-Yess, they do. You sssee, the sssummoned sssnakess have a ssoul, like real onesss. Becaussse when you sssummon a ssnake, there are many ssnake ssoulsss that want to come... But if the ssummoned one is vanissshed away, the ssoul will wander around again. But we much prefer to live, yesss. It iss interesssting to sssee that humanss can't be vanisshed away like ssummoned animalsss. But you can't sssummon humansss either-
Draco stared at the cobra until it finished speaking and then Harry took a deep breath to start translating. Just then, though, Hermione, Amala and Ginny entered the room.
"Hi, guys! What's up?" Ginny asked as everybody else said hello.
"Well, Harry here was just about to translate what the cobra had said about why summoned snakes have a soul and all that" Draco replied and stared intently at Harry.
"'The cobra' has a name, its name is Bujanca" Harry said and smiled.
"Its name?" Amala said. "What about 'its' gender?"
Bujanca laughed again, making the others stare at her.
"It understands English" Harry explained.
-I am male- the cobra said and laughed again.
"And it says that it's a male" he added.
"Bujanca doesn't sound like a very manly name" Draco snorted.
-Hey, busssster, may I remind you you're called Malfoy, hmsss?- Bujanca replied in a mock-hurt voice.
"He asked you if you need to be reminded that your name is Malfoy" Harry said, seeing the odd stares that Bujanca was receiving.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Draco asked, hitting the air with his fist. "So, what did he say about the soul thing, huh?"
"He said that there are snake souls waiting and they come when a snake is summoned. And he said that they go back when they are vanished, but they prefer to stay alive. He also said that it is impossible to summon humans or to vanish humans" Harry replied and took a deep breath since he had said that in nearly one breath.
"That's something to remember" Hermione said. "Hey, Bujanca, do you think that after this is all over you could tell us some things about snake habits and knowledge?"
All the others stared at her as she smiled to the cobra sheepishly.
-I guesssss I could- it replied kindly.
"He said he could" Harry said smiling at his very red friend.
"Thanks" Hermione said and Bujanca opened his mouth to say something, but then shot a glance at Harry and turned back to Hermione and gave a small nod.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Nine teens were on the top of the West Tower at 12:15 at night. Hermione was just casting Disillusionment Charms over them and Draco was telling them again and again how they had to split up at first, travel low and fast so they wouldn't be seen from the forest and reunite at the funny-looking tree at the entrance of the Forest. From there, Draco would lead and, so he could be seen by everybody, he would carry a black rag at his broomstick. The signal for attacking was his wolf cry –they had double checked there was no full moon so there would be no werewolf problems with that one- and then, Bujanca would summon the snakes, Mark and Amala would uncover the summoned things that looked like mystical creatures –'don't know what they are, can't fight back, right?'- and everybody else would attack all they could. Neville had already received his task of carrying and using some even better plants than they had had in mind at first: seeds that would instantly grow large when they were wetted with special potions...
Hermione finished tapping them with her wand and she was quite pleased at herself. Draco had managed to establish the routes.
"Look, the sign!" said a voice, probably Luna's.
Indeed, a small candle had appeared at the edge of the Forest and somewhere down there, Harry had slowly started walking towards it.
"12:30" Draco said. "Ok, guys, move it. We meet at the funny shaped tree, right? Ginny, you first, take the right route. Neville second, the left. Amala third, the right, Mark fourth, the left..."
He said it making slow pauses between calling out their names and all they could see were broomsticks flying through the air and quickly managing to get to less than two meters from the ground. The Order was nowhere to be seen and Draco's greatest fear was that they could see the booms before they reached the forest's edge or worse, one of them would crash in an order member.
After everyone had left, he waited for a second before going down on his broom also, diving to merely a meter off ground and going straight for the funny-shaped tree.
"Everybody here?" he whispered. "Ginny?"
"Yes"
"Amala"
"Over here"
"Neville
"Here, Draco"
"Mark"
"Yep"
"Jane"
"Just made it"
"Luna"
"Mhm"
"Ron?"
"Yes"
"Hermione"
"Over here"
"So that's all. We ready?"
"Yes" said a few voices.
"Follow me then and don't get lost"
Although it was weird for everybody to follow a broomstick with a rag attached and which had air moving slightly above it as it would over fire –due to the nature of the Disillusionment Charm- they complied and soon they made it to the floating candle. As planned before, Draco quietly flew over the trees of the Forbidden Forest until he thought there were about forty meters and then he slowly, even slower than a man would walk, he went through the branches of the trees, low enough to see what was down there.
And then he saw it. A sickening sight: ten Death Eaters and seven tied up men in a circle with the Death Eaters on the outer side. And of course, in front of them, stood the Dark Lord himself, dressed in his black robes, but he wasn't hooded and masked. Instead, Draco could see his extremely white skin and his red snake-like eyes. He understood quickly that Harry had not made it there yet.
He saw the other broomsticks also hover over the group of eighteen below and his mind thought quickly about weirdly, mathematics. He nearly snorted to himself, but decided not to, though. But he really thought it was funny that he thought that three times six was eighteen and that six-six-six was the devil's number. He shook his head and concentrated on what would happen below. But where was Potter?
It seemed like one of the Death Eaters was thinking along the same lines.
"Maybe he won't come" she said slowly.
"He will come, Bella" the Dark Lord replied darkly. "He is a true idiot, like only a Gryffindor can be and he will try to save his friends... and even those who he doesn't know"
"But let me kill one of them. For him being late" Bella said. "This one, the one I killed before"
"No, Bella" he replied and turned to glare at her. "He is the main part of this. The boy wants him more than he does anybody."
Bella made an unpleased sound before she settled down to where she was before. They waited for two more minutes before a green light started coming in the Forest. Nobody else could, but Draco saw that the Dark Lord's eyes suddenly got wider in fear and that he wasn't comfortable at all.
Soon, the Green Flame Torch and its bearer, Harry, that was, were face to face with the Dark Lord.
"Give me the Torch, boy, or they die" the snake-like man said.
"Release them and I give you the Torch" Harry replied.
"Oh, no, no, no, boy!" the Dark Lord said, giving a small laugh. "So that then you can attack me?"
"Then, remove the ropes from them and I pass you the Torch. The moment the Torch reaches your hand, they are allowed to go unharmed" Harry said, a green light flickering in his eyes, making him look noble and terrifying.
"Very well" the other replied with a deadly smile. "Remove the ropes!"
The Death Eaters complied and all the captives got on their feet, ready to run.
"Now, the Torch, boy!" he spat in his horrible laugh and Harry pointed his wand at the Torch and slowly lifted it off the ground before he floated it towards Voldemort, who was three meters away.
Everybody stared at the Torch that was floating and when it reached the Dark Lord's hand, the captives ran at top speed toward the direction from which Harry had come from, but making sure they weren't too close to the evil mastermind.
The Dark Lord smiled a horrible smile at seeing the Torch in his hands and he cried:
"Kill them!"
That was the signal for everybody. Draco howled loudly, making Voldemort look up at the moon for a second, losing precious time. The Order of the Phoenix seemed to appear out of nowhere, but they were actually throwing off their Invisibility Cloaks. Harry summoned the Torch with all his power and the Dark Lord gave a cry at losing it just when he was about to do something to it with his wand.
The Order got the captives under cover and switched to defensive, but the nine in the trees were quite offensive and they were shooting all they could at the Death Eaters. Everywhere, weird creatures appeared and some plants started falling on the ground, growing as quickly as possible.
The Dark Lord laughed however and hissed and a lot of snakes appeared, but before he knew it, he was the one attacked by the snakes and not his enemies.
But he smiled wickedly and raised his wand and cried out something Draco couldn't understand. The next thing he knew was that he crushed two meters on a cold floor, no more broom, no more Forest, just a huge cold and dark room.
He quickly understood that the Dark Lord had taken them to his castle, where he had more of an advantage and he realized that there were indeed about forty Death Eaters around. The snake-man summoned the Torch to himself and laughed in Harry's face –he had twenty wands pointed at him, just in case- and also told his servants that there were nine more people in the room and they were to find them and tie them up.
Then, he left out of the room, the Torch in his hand and the Death Eaters noticed their shapes and took them down. If it hadn't been for the fall, Draco would have fought back... But now, he was too hurt.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
AN: What, you thought they'd win? –for a second there, so did I- Unfortunately, Voldemort has a few tricks up his sleeve... :-)))
Remember the reviews thing? It still stands! So, guys, you have plenty of reasons to review. See you soon, take care, enjoy hot summer and all that. Love y'all.
To:
Inu-kokoro: Thanks! I really liked the Draco-Ginny pairing when I first read about it, so I said to myself: "Well, why not?!" And I'm posting... Promised I would, didn't I?
Tsuetsu: Thanks! I'm really glad that my writing skills are getting better... In fact, that's why I started writing. That and the obvious obsession for Harry Potter, of course! And thanks for the review on my other story!
Krystal: Thanks and I'm glad you like my story! As for the reviews part... well, the deal's working so far, isn't it? ;-)
Rhys Hiscock: No, Kingsley isn't a Death Eater. He just happened to be on the wrong side of an Imperius Curse from Lucius. Thanks for the review!
Gochan Son: Thanks! And I promise I will!
Other chapters:
I'm not the weakest link: Thanks! Glad you like it!
Harryp/charmedfreak: I'm glad you like it and I'm sorry for the Snape Amala, but I really enjoy writing it, so I'm afraid it stays. Sorry about that. But you will see why it's there in the sequel –yes, there will be a sequel. I don't intend on killing Voldemort right now-.